A New Beginning
by Snowflake006
Summary: Alice is a wreck and has just been released from the insane asylum. Jasper is a hard-working lawyer in the city. Neither of them needed or thought that they would ever fall in love. But they did. AH and AU. Rated M for further content.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This story was written, because I started thinking about what it would be like, if Alice was the messed-up one, that Jasper had to save and take care of, and not the other way around. Sounds weird, I know. But here it is. A story where Alice is the weird one, and Jasper is the normal. Or almost normal. ;)**

**Read and review please! This is my first fanfic. So if you can, please be nice. **

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**Alice**

_I never really thought that I would be the kind of person that would try to take my own life. When I was little, I was the happiest kid in my class. When I was a teenager, I was pretty much the only one that didn't suffer from heartache permanently, and when I got married, I was the most worked-up and hyper bride in the history of the world. Being depressed was not something I was used to. But there's always a limit on how much happiness you can have, right?_

There wasn't an actual word that could describe how I felt, when I opened the door to my 'new' apartment. Just a year ago, I had been happily married (or at least that's what I thought back then), living in a huge, white house in the suburbs and expecting my first child.

All that was gone. Erased, lost, thrown away. There was nothing left but a blank feeling, that was eating me up from the inside.

I had finally been released from the insane asylum after seven months, and I was now living in the bad side of town, in an apartment that looked more like an oversized trash can than as a place meant for living. If I had been the same person I used to be, I would have painted the faded, grey walls in bright, happy colors and I would have bought new furniture for the entire apartment/trash can. But I wasn't the same person. And I would never be.

I dumped my luggage on the floor, right in front of the door, and flopped down on the item that had probably once been a couch, but had now been turned into a pile of brown cushions in a weird shape. There was a tiny door (not that it mattered to me, I wasn't very tall) that led in to a tiny bedroom, and then there was a bathroom the size of a box. But at least it had a bathtub.

I decided that my first activity in my new home should be a nice, warm bath. I hadn't had a bath that lasted more than two and a half minutes in all the time I had been in the asylum, and it was one of the only things besides my perfect life, that I had missed.

The only evidence of my life before this very moment was my birth certificate, and a small picture from my wedding day. Everything else, everything that could remind me about my happy days, had been taken away from me. The doctors thought it was unhealthy for me to keep it.

As I looked closely at the picture, I could see how much I had changed. I looked happy, healthy and beautiful on the picture. I wasn't looking into the camera, I was looking at my husband with a loving, adoring look in my eyes. His face was blurry because of some coffee that had been spilled on the corner of the picture, but I remembered him clearly. If I really focused, I could make out a small bump on my stomach.

I looked so different now.

Even though the doctors had practically shoved the food into my mouth, I had lost so much weight. My cheekbones were way too sharp when I touched them, and with my pale skin, empty eyes, and purple eye bags, I looked like a ghost. I remembered the way the woman who gave me the key had looked at me; a sad, pitiful look. But she was probably used to it. This was a neighborhood of junkies, whores and rapists. To her, I was just one out of many.

I didn't think I would ever smile again. Everything was ruined, but at least I didn't want to die anymore. They had done a good job scaring my suicide thoughts out of my head at the asylum. But I knew that could never have a life like the one I always dreamt of when I was little. The scar on my wrist would never go away, and every time I looked at it, I would remember. I could never love anyone like I loved James, and I could never have children. That hurt the most.

I was only 24, and my life was practically over.

I pulled down the black curtains and curled into ball on the couch.


	2. Chapter 2

**Jasper**

"No, of course you're not going to jail. Yes, I will. No, you don't have to… Just listen to me, Mr. Heston. Yes, I promise."

I was on the phone with Mr. Heston, one of my clients, again. He called me all the time, and every time, I assured him that he wouldn't have to go to jail. But of course he would. The guy had sold enough heroin to fill up my sock drawer. But constantly promising murderers, rapists and drug dealers that I could save them from the terrible fate it was to have to spend the rest of their miserable lifes in prison, was a part of the job I had chosen. Not that I complained. I made enough money to live in a huge penthouse, and all the hard, boring years at Harvard had been worth it. I was good at this. And if my twin sister hadn't been so beautiful, I would have been the brightest star in our family. But she was a well-known model that got invited to all the right things, and she was the wonder child.

My secretary, Bella, waved at me when I passed through the huge glassdoors. She was the girlfriend of my best friend and favourite cousin, Edward, and when she lost her job a few months ago, I persuaded my boss to hire her. The job fitted her perfectly, as she sat down on a safe chair 70 percent of the time. Bella was extremely clumsy, and she had more than once accidently crashed the computer by pouring her coffee all over the keyboard.

She handed me a cup of coffee (lots of caffeine, no milk or sugar added) and looked at me with a worried expression.

"What time did you leave yesterday?" she asked, and frowned. "You look terrible. The shadows under your eyes aren't even grey anymore, they're purple!" She eyed me with a worried expression. Bella always told me that I needed to relax more. She was such a sweet and caring person.

"Bella, I was just going through the Heston-case. I couldn't find some of the papers." I sighed. It wasn't _that_ late when I left.

"You're not going to win, you know" she said, and took a sip of her latte.

"I know" I knew. But he didn't.

"You shouldn't give promises you can't keep" she looked at me in a way that reminded me of how my mother used to look at me when I had misbehaved.

"I know that, too. Look, Bella, I have a lot of things to do, so I don't really have time to discuss this with you" I said, and started walking towards the elevator.

"Maria called. Again." she called after me. I turned around and saw her waving a piece of paper. "She asked me to give you this message".

Maria was my ex-girlfriend. After I'd left her a few weeks ago, she had called non-stop, leaving messages that begged me to take her back. Bella found it hilarious.

I walked back to her, and she grinned at me. "This one's a good one. Want me to read it?" I just shrugged. She already knew what it said, so it didn't matter now.

I didn't really pay much attention when she read it. It was just another desperate love letter.

"It's sad" Bella stated, when she curled the paper into a small ball. "She's obviously not over you yet." I noticed that she had a new bruise on her forehead today. Bella always had bruises. She really was an accident prone.

"Don't even ask" she said, and rubbed the bruise. "You should go, you're almost late"

"I know. I have a meeting with Newton today" I almost shuddered at the thought. Michael Newton was our new boss, and without a doubt the most annoying, self-obsessed creature on the planet.

"Good luck with that!" Bella called after me as the doors to the elevator closed.


	3. Chapter 3

Alice

I used to love grocery shopping. Even if I just had to buy bread and coffee, I could easily spend hours looking around for the best quality and the lowest possible price. And it was an excellent opportunity for me to show the entire store my 24 carat engagement ring when I pulled out my credit card.

It had been a year since the last time I went shopping. But my refrigerator was empty, and I needed some food, so I had no choice but to get my umbrella and get out.

I walked around like a zombie in the store, grabbing almost everything in my reach. Milk, butter, bread, apples, aspirin, something in a brown package, something in a yellow package, cereal, chocolate, orange juice and something else I didn't even look at before throwing it in my basket.

It felt weird to be around people again. At the asylum, everyone treated me so carefully, like I could break down anytime if they said or did something wrong.

People at this store treated me like they treated one another: they ignored me.

A young man, looking if possible even more ill than I did, was buying some aspirin, and a teenage girl, that couldn't possibly have been older than 15, looked around nervously before she grabbed a pregnancy test from the shelf, and hid it under her blouse. The girl behind the counter was reading a magazine, completely oblivious to the enormous line that was forming, until someone yelled something, and she finally looked up. It was sad to watch.

A woman carrying her baby girl walked through the dirty doors, looking tired and very outworn. The girl looked around with big, scared eyes and clung to her mothers neck.

It felt like my heart stopped beating and fell down in my stomach, leaving a feeling that a huge hole had been punched right through me.

I was so happy when I saw the little pink plus sign on the pregnancy test back then. All my girly dreams had come true, and I was getting married in the spring. Everything was so perfect, until that night.

I pinched my arm. I couldn't think about it. I wouldn't think about it.

Instead, I paid for all my stuff, and hurried outside. It had gotten even colder when I was inside, or make it was just because I had gotten used to the warmer temperature inside the store.

It was in the beginning of November, and the weather was already freezing cold. It rained every day, and the snow was probably not far away. Not that I cared.

When I was little, my sister Cynthia and I always played in the snow every winter. But Cynthia had moved to Florida a few years ago, and she had only visited me once at the asylum. I was on my own now.

I had finally reached my building, and I made my way upstairs. It took a little while for my cold, stiff fingers to get a proper grip on the key and turn it in the lock. Inside, it was almost as cold as outside. I didn't want to, but I knew I had to turn on the heater. I kept my coat on until it was warm enough, and decided that I had to unpack my stuff and move in. It looked so temporary when everything was still in my bag on the floor. And I knew that this wasn't temporary.

I knew that I had to move on, but I didn't want to. I didn't want to forget and I didn't want to live through it over again with someone else. So I had to stay here.

But whether I wanted to or not, I had to get a job. I didn't have much money, and my parents had given my inheritance to Cynthia, because they thought she needed it more. She probably did at the time. But I needed it now. I didn't have a college degree because I got engaged right after graduation, and I didn't know what I was good at. No one would hire me for a real job, and I refused to work at a small, dirty store, like that girl with the magazine.

If I'd had my sewing machine, I might have figured something out. But I didn't have it, or anything else useful.

It was still to early for me to go to bed, so I sat on the couch instead, and tried not to think too much.

That was at least something I was good at.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Thank you to everyone who favourited and alerted, it means a lot :). Also, I want to give a special thanks to NdYeaiimRude1, the first reviewer. Thank you!**

**I apologize if there's any spelling or grammar mistakes in this chapter, but I wanted to upload it now. I have a lot of stuff to do this week, so I probably wouldn't have time to upload it later. **

**But here it is: the fourth chapter. Enjoy! (and review please) **

**And also, while I wrote this I listened to "Black and Blue" by Miike Snow. It doesn't have anything to do with this fanfiction, but it's an awesome song. You should check it out. **

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**Jasper**

It was Friday night, and the rain was pouring down. It was like someone was emptying a giant bathtub.

I was alone, sitting in a small, dirty bar with a cup of Irish coffee in front of me, waiting for the rain to stop. So far, it hadn't. I had been stuck inside for fifteen minutes now, and I almost didn't notice the moldy smell of dirt and dust anymore. The chair I sat on had a missing leg and my cup was a bit deformed, which just made it that much harder for my frozen, shaky fingers to hold it and not spill the hot coffee in my lap. The waitress, Jessica, according to her name tag, probably wouldn't mind it if I did, though. She looked like she was more than ready to rush over and clean it up, eyeing me every three seconds and smiling a smile that was probably meant to be seductive, but just looked sick.

But even that couldn't get me to go back out in the cold. It was only November, but the weather seemed to believe it was January.

I heard the door open behind me, and I shuddered as a blow of cold air filled the room. I wasn't the only one trying to escape from the rain, the room was filled with all kinds of people, opening and closing the door all the time, so at first, I didn't look up to see who it was.

But then I heard the person coughing. It was a very light, girly sound, almost like a child, and my head immediately snapped up.

A very wet, very young woman was standing in the doorway, swaying a bit and looking very confused. She had traces of black on her cheeks and she looked like someone had tried to drown her. Her short, black her was dripping wet, and there was already a small pole of water on the floor where she stood. She was wearing a thin, grey jacket, and she was shaking from the cold. When she stumbled across the floor, I could easily see that she was drunk.

I kept my eyes on her, when she sat down on a chair very close to mine, and tried to decide her age. It was difficult, because she wasn't very tall, but at the same time, her face looked very grown-up and tired, and even though she was very thin, too thin in fact, there was still something about her that looked like she could have had a decent hourglass shape.

She asked for a glass of vodka, and her light voice broke in the middle of the sentence. It sounded so wrong to hear the word 'vodka' said in that voice. It was like hearing a drunk Thumbelina.

Besides that, she really didn't look like vodka was the best thing to give her. Her eyes were half closed, and when she leaned a little to the side, her chair suddenly flicked.

It was like I was watching her in slow motion when she fell. I could almost already see what it would look like when her head hit the stone floor and her blood changed the grey color of the stone, and without thinking, I got up from my chair so fast I knocked it over, and grabbed her elbow. It was so thin I was almost scared that I would break her arm, but at least that would be better than the alternative.

No one else seemed to notice what was going on, not even the waitress, when I pulled her up and sat her down on the chair. Now, when I was so close to her, the smell of alcohol was much stronger, and I found it hard to believe that a person her size could drink that much and still be conscious.

But even when she was all wet and drunk, she was beautiful. Her bloodshot eyes were light blue, and underneath the bluish color of her lips, there was a faint color of rose.

Thumbelina opened her blue eyes and stared at me. "Thanks" she muttered, and looked down. If it had been any other person, I would have finished my coffee and walked home. But I couldn't leave Thumbelina like this, all cold and wet. She reminded me of a snowflake. So fragile and vulnerable, like it would crush her if someone touched her.

"Where's my vodka?" she whispered and looked around with a hungry look on her face. "I'm thirsty. What's in that cup? Can I have it?" She didn't give me time to answer, she just reached for the coffee and drank it without hesitation. The warm coffee made her lips and skin look less dead and it even gave her cheeks a bit of color, but she still looked freezing cold. When I asked for her name, she hesitated a bit before answering. Almost as if she needed to think about it first.

"Alice" she said. "Alice Brandon".


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: yeah, as I said a long time ago, my computer got run over by a car. Seriously. But, I bought a new one this weekend and started writing again. **

**Yes, this chapter is extremely short, and I'm sorry about that. But I promise I'll write a longer one soon. I really wish I could write long chapters but for some reason, I can't. Oh Well, this is my first fanfiction, maybe I'll learn it later. I probably just have to get used to writing like this. **

**I want to give a shout out to TheBookAddict, thank you so much for you're review, it totally made my day. Thanks! :)**

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**Alice**

The man looked at me with a concerned look. I usually hated when people looked at me like that. The doctors at the asylum did it all the time, people in the streets did it, Cynthia did it that time she visited me. But when he did it, I didn't mind it. It was almost flattering.

Behind the concern, there was something I couldn't identify. Maybe… fascination? It was hard to tell, because I didn't know him at all. And I didn't know if I should like him or not.

He was attractive, very attractive actually, but attractive people aren't always nice people. I knew that too well.

He asked for my name, and his voice was so beautiful. It was deep, but not too deep, soothing, but not too soothing.

"Alice" I said, and cleared my throat. "Alice Brandon".

"Alice Brandon" he repeated, and I loved the way he said my name. He made it sound soft.

"You shouldn't go out in this weather, Alice" he looked directly at me again, and this time, I lifted my head and met his gaze. His eyes were bluish-green. "You could get sick".

I didn't answer. I almost felt sick already. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and my fingers were still numb. I just wanted to go home. I wanted someone to take care of me and bring me hot chocolate, and I wanted someone to hold me when I cried. I felt the tears pricking in my eyes, and I didn't try to hold them back. I had lost my pride a long time ago.

The man looked at me with a gentle expression. He didn't say anything, he just took off his jacket and put it around my shoulders.

"Let's get you home Alice. Where do you live?" he asked with that beautiful, beautiful voice. I wiped my cheeks. It didn't matter anymore if he knew where I lived. He frowned when I told him; he probably knew that it was a bad neighborhood, but he didn't say anything.

We made our way outside, and he put an arm around my shoulders and led me through the puddles. His jacket kept me warm, but I was so worried that he would get sick because of me.

"I never get sick" he told me when I asked, and he refused to take the jacket.

I was almost sleep walking all the way home, for each step I took I felt heavier and heavier, and more and more exhausted. When we reached my building, I was practically asleep. I only vaguely noticed that he picked me up and carried me up the stairs, that he somehow found the key in my pocket and that he took my boots of and covered me with a nice warm blanket on the bed. And then he was gone. I didn't even hear the door close behind him, and for some reason that pained me. It would have been nice with a goodbye, even if it was just a door closing noisily because it was old and a little too big for the doorway.


	6. Chapter 6

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AN: A very, very delayed update to my story. This chapter is from Rosalies point of view. I might add few chapters that are written from Rosalie's or Bella's (or maybe Edward or Emmett's?) point of views, but It's just a thought, so please let me know what you think. :)

**I have four more chapters coming up soon, I just have to finish the editing first.**

**But here it is, a new chapter. As always, I apologize for misspellings and grammar mistakes, I had to use an online spellchecker, as english is not my first language (but you probably figured that out already (: )**

**And also, disclaimer: of course I do not own any of the characters, everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.**

**Read and review, please! :D**

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**Rosalie**

Taking care of my sick twin brother was not exactly how I had imagined spending my day. But Bella was visiting her father, Edward was in Italy on a business trip, my fiance Emmett was not exactly the ideal nurse and when all came to all, I did enjoy spending time with Jasper, even when he was all sick and whiny (not that I would ever admit it).

"It's your own fault, stupid" I gathered some of the used tissues from the night stand, "That's what you get when you give your jacket to a total stranger. What the hell were you thinking? That jacket was expensive"

I gave him that jacket as a birthday present last year. He got me a gorgeous Bordeaux Very Wang dress, and it had been my favorite dress ever since.  
"Sorry" Jasper muttered and pulled the blankets over his head. "Would you please get me some tea?"  
I sighed. Like any other man, Jasper turned into a helpless, self-pitying wreck whenever he got sick. Even when it was just a cold like this, he was convinced that he would die if someone wasn't around to look after him. And that someone was usually me.

When I returned from the kitchen with the biggest mug I could find on a tray, Jasper was completely covered in blankets. Only a few locks of his golden hair (one of the many features we shared) were visible on the pillow.  
"Here you go" I said, and sat the mug down on the nightstand.  
"Could you please not talk so loud" Jasper groaned from underneath the blankets and made a sound that sounded like a trapped mouse. I rolled my eyes.

Jasper had been incredibly cranky for a while now. I knew he was very busy; he worked late every night, but it annoyed me that he wasn't as fun as he used to be. And I really doubted that work and stress were the only reasons. I sat down on the bed.

"Are you sure you don't want me to set you up with Sarah?" Sarah was one of my many friends, and I knew that she liked Jasper. But he refused to go out with her, even though she was everything a guy could ask for: Beautiful, funny and a former model.  
The only answer I got was "mmm-hmm". He had always been extremely stubborn, but I wasn't going to give up that easily.  
"What about Blair, then? She's pretty…" I was methodically going through all of the single girls I knew in my head when Jaspers voice interrupted my thoughts.  
"I'm fine Rose, really. You don't have to set me up with anyone" he sat up in the bed and reached for the tea cup.  
I looked at him, concerned.

"But I want to do something. I don't want you to be lonely…" I eyed him suspiciously "Besides, when was the last time you had any?"  
Jasper nearly choked on his tea, and his eyes widened as he started coughing violently.  
"What… did… you say?" He managed to choke out between the coughs.

I couldn't help but smiling at his reaction.  
"I think you know exactly what I said" I said to him and grinned, "but I can repeat it again if you want… When was the last time you had any?"  
"That is absolutely none of your business" Jasper said, still a little breathless. His reaction didn't surprise me. We were very close, but sex and pretty much everything that related to it, was the only thing Jasper refused to talk to me about. I knew that things had been wild with Maria, though. Despite all Jaspers efforts to keep it a secret, I knew (thanks to my personal spy, Emmett) that they had been arrested for making out in a park once. Emmett found it hilarious.

I hated the idea of Jasper and Maria together. Partially because he was my brother, and I didn't really like the idea of Jasper being with anyone, but mostly because Maria and I didn't get along very well when they were dating. I didn't hate her, but I didn't particularly like her either.  
We were competitors and we envied each other. I envied Maria, because she always had Jasper's full attention while I was pushed aside, and Maria envied me, because she knew that I knew Jasper much better than she did.

Jasper sneezed violently.  
I sighed. "Fine, if you say so. But if you change your mind, Blair's boyfriend just broke up with her last month, and I think you would like her, she just majored in history last year and she looks really good and she's looking for –"

"Rose," Jasper said with a serious voice, "I'm fine. I'm sure that Blair is a..." - There was a short pause as he struggled to find the right word – "… great girl, but I don't think I'm… uhm… ready for a new relationship yet. I mean, I just broke up with Maria and all…"  
I chuckled.

"You're such a liar. But fine, I'll stay out of it." I looked at him and smiled.  
"Thank you" he said with a relieved expression. "And thanks for coming over today"  
"Oh, you're welcome" I said. And I meant it.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: As always, I apoligize if there are any misspellings or grammar mistakes, but I hope that you will enjoy it anyway :)**

**Thank you so much for favoriting and alerting :) and a ****special thanks to Ja4ever, thank you so much for all of your reviews and for favoriting and alerting! :D**

**Love, Snowflake **

**(I'm sorry that my chapters are so short... I really am trying to make them longer... but I find it quite difficult)**

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****Jasper**

After four days in bed, I was finally feeling well again. It had been a while since last time I was too sick to go to work, and I couldn't wait to get back. Being sick made me feel weak, and I did not like feeling weak.

Rosalie was my own personal angel; she came over every day to see how I was doing, and although she complained a lot, I knew that she didn't mind it. Rosalie was so easy to read, at least for me.  
We were very close, and even though there were some things I tried to keep from her, she always found out somehow. She could be a real bitch sometimes, but after she'd found Emmett, she had become a much nicer person. They weren't very alike; actually, they were very different from each other. While Rosalie was formal, composed and a bit reserved, Emmett was outgoing, open-minded and easy to be around. But as it is said, opposites attract, and they were a perfect match. They were rarely apart, and I found it quite flattering that Rosalie left Emmett for a few hours every day, just so she could look after me.

But when she wasn't around, I was alone. It gave me a lot of time to think, as I had nothing else to do beside sleeping (I couldn't read, because every time I tried to focus on the words, my head ached like it was about to explode, I couldn't watch bad sitcoms, because the intensity of all the colors made my eyes hurt and I couldn't listen to music because my iPod was in my coat pocket, and my coat was with that girl, Alice Brandon) and although I was extremely tired, I could hardly sleep for four days straight.

Instead, I thought about Alice Brandon. I knew where she lived, and I thought about whether or not I should go back and get my jacket, but finally, I decided that I would, for Rosalie. She gave me that jacket, and she took it as an insult that I had left it with a stranger.

It was a bright, but cold day when I stepped outside for the first time in almost five days, wearing my dark grey winter coat for the first time that year. It was the 20th of November and it was getting colder and colder. The snow probably wasn't far away.

As I made my way across the street, I wondered how Alice Brandon (I stubbornly referred to her by her full name in my thoughts – using just her first name would have felt too personal) would react.  
Would she be mad? Maybe she wanted to sell the jacket; it was a nice, expensive jacket from some luxurious European brand, and if she was a drug addict, she might need the money. I remembered the blue shadows under her eyes and her ghostly, white skin; she definitely looked like a drug addict. And why else would she live where she lived? The only people who lived in that neighborhood were drug addicts, alcoholics, hookers and criminals.  
But Alice Brandon didn't look like a hooker. She didn't look like a criminal either, but although she didn't look like an alcoholic, I had to admit that it was definitely an option. She had been drinking quite heavily when I met her at that diner.

It only took about 10 minutes to get from the "good" neighborhood to the "bad" neighborhood, but the distance felt much longer. The difference between the neighborhoods was striking, and sometimes it was like there was a wall separating them. Those who lived in the bad neighborhood stayed there, and the rich people, people like Rosalie, Emmett and all of my other friends, wanted to keep it that way.

I felt like I was breaking a rule when I finally found the right building and walked up the stairs. The stairway was extremely narrow and the ceiling was so low I almost hit my head against it. I wondered how I had managed to carry Alice Brandon all the way up, in darkness even, without getting her hurt. Would she even remember? I hesitated in front of her door. Would it be better to forget about her and just leave her alone?

I sighed. Then I held my breath and knocked.


End file.
